Elizabeth Foyster

Creating a Veil of Silence? Politeness and Marital Violence in the English Household

This paper explores the impact of polite codes of manners within the home and in marriage. It focuses on marital violence as a manifestation of impolite behaviour, and argues that codes of politeness could offer benefits for wives faced with violent husbands. Instead of silencing discussion of marital violence, ideas about polite behaviour enabled women to define unacceptable male behaviour in marriage, and to find new ways of responding to violence. A case study of one marriage breakdown shows how within the culture of polite manners and sensibility, nervous illnesses became a powerful way for genteel women to signal violent or sexual abuse.

At the limits of liberty: married women and confinement in eighteenth-century England

The confinement of married women by their husbands in their homes or in private madhouses was an issue which caused much concern in eighteenth-century England, but which has been little explored by historians. This article uses the records of the court of Kings Bench, a source which has been previously neglected by historians of marriage, to explore the circumstances of this form of marital abuse. It shows that within eighteenth-century English law there was much uncertainty about the ‘right’ of husbands to confine their wives, and that this allowed some men to test the limits of their authority. It argues that although some women were able to adopt legal and extra-legal strategies in response to confinement, changing notions of ideal femininity shaped the ways in which women were able to respond to marital abuse, and left genteel women peculiarly vulnerable to accusations of madness and to subsequent confinement in a madhouse.

Parenting Was for Life, Not Just for Childhood: The Role of Parents in the Married Lives of their Children in Early Modern England

Marriage is a false dividing line to impose on our understanding of childhood, adulthood and parenting in the past. In early modern England neither the dependency which has been associated with childhood, nor the supervision of parents in the lives of their children, ceased with wedding bells. An examination of the parent-child bond beyond marriage within the middle and upper ranks can provide new and important insights into the intergenerational relationships of the early modern past. While parents could contribute to the smooth running of their childrens marriages, they could also have a role as instigators of, commentators upon, and arbitrators of the discord which could result in their childrens marriages. Motives for parental involvement could be complex, but parents could share in both the sorrows and the joys of their childrens marriages. The emotional and financial repercussions of marriage breakdown could have painful effects for parents as well as for the married couple.

'Fear of giving Offence makes me give the more Offence': Politeness, speech and its impediments in British society, c.1660-1800'

ABSTRACT In the period c.1660–1800, there was an unprecedented interest in the spoken word in Britain, and for those who aspired to be polite, a new emphasis upon the sounds of their speech. But what did this mean for the lives of those who stammered, stuttered or had a lisp? How far were speech impediments experienced or viewed as disabilities? This article argues that in their quest for polite manners and refinement, the socially ambitious were prepared to invest time and money upon improving their speech. This created demand for the services of speech specialists, a new occupational group who forged their identity during this time. The consequences of their advertising techniques, which suggested that speech impediments could and should be overcome, are explored. Finally, this article examines how polite society set standards for listening and responding to the sounds of people with speech impediments.